It's a common complaint among the bosses of top property companies that their shares are undervalued. A lot of investors have been shunning the sector on the assumption that commercial property prices are set to fall. Take Hammerson, the UK's biggest shopping centre group, owner of the Bullring and Grand Central centres in Birmingham, Cabot Circus in Bristol, Centrale in Croydon and the UK's first shopping centre, Brent Cross in north London.

Sterling surged on Monday as Britain and the European Union agreed on a post-Brexit transition period and said that their divorce treaty would include an emergency "backstop" to avoid a hard border in Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) . The pound, which had already been rallying on expectations for a transition deal, gained further after the announcement by British Brexit minister David Davis and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. The headlines and sterling's reaction suggested a transition agreement had been reached more easily than the market had expected, he said.

Sterling surged on Monday after the European Union said it had agreed to grant London a status-quo transition after it exits the bloc next year, until the end of 2020. Yields on safe-haven euro zone bonds too rose after the announcement, with Germany's benchmark 10-year bond yield up 2 basis points at 0.59 percent - a session high.

Unions representing Ryanair pilots across Europe have signed a deal to cooperate in a move that could raise the prospect of coordinated action, something its management has been keen to avoid. In the agreement signed on Saturday (Shenzhen: 002291.SZ - news) , the unions decided to form a transnational pilot group to negotiate with Ryanair at a pan-European level, the European Cockpit Association said. Ryanair is in talks to formalise union recognition in several European countries but it has refused requests to engage with pilots on a pan-European basis.

Bushmills whiskey has a long history, originally granted its license in 1608, just as settlers arrived in North America and as King James I was on the throne. By the 1980s though, Irish whiskey had collapsed, representing just 1% of the global market. Master distiller Colm Egan says growth is significant: "Here at Bushmills we are looking at and really expanding the distillery itself, our markets are growing and our biggest market in the US continues to grow.

There is no evidence to support the claim Britain could have a post-Brexit open Irish border without any checkpoints, according to a report by MPs (BSE: MPSLTD.BO - news) . The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee examined whether it is possible to leave the single market and customs union without creating a hard Irish border. The report concludes it has been unable to find border solutions anywhere in the world which avoid physical infrastructure.

Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) has much to smile about currently. Ireland has just been confirmed as the fastest-growing economy in the eurozone for the fourth consecutive year. The first is that Ireland endured genuine austerity as it sought to stabilise its public finances.

Phoenix Group said it would not change tack and buy open books of insurance, following a recent deal to buy the majority of Standard Life Aberdeen's insurance business and become Europe's largest manager of books of mature business. Phoenix bought SLA's ongoing Irish and German insurance businesses, as well as closed books of annuities, in a 3.24 billion pound ($4.52 billion) deal announced last month.

Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) 's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 7.8 percent in 2017, making it the European Union's fastest-growing economy for the fourth straight year, although the figures were again flattered by statistical distortions. The relevance of using GDP as an accurate measure for such an open economy was called into question when 2015 growth figures were adjusted up after a massive revision to the stock of capital assets related to Ireland's large multinational sector.

British hedge fund firm Winton Capital has registered as an alternative investment fund manager in Ireland, the Irish central banks's website showed. Authorisation was given on Jan. 2 and the website was ...

Britain stands by its commitments over Northern Ireland's border with the Republic of Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) and stands ready to work with the European Union and Ireland to deliver a solution, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday. "We stand by all the commitments we made in December," she told parliament. "We've been clear that our preferred option is to deliver these through our new partnership with the EU, with specific solutions to address the unique circumstances in Northern Ireland if needed.

Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) 's unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in February, up from an initial estimate of 6.0 percent, the country's statistics agency said on Wednesday. January's unemployment rate was also revised up, to 6.2 percent from 6.1 percent. Unemployment has fallen steadily since peaking at 16 percent in 2012 as Ireland's economy grows faster than any other in Europe.

Irish house prices grew 12.5 percent in the year to January, the highest annual growth rate since early 2015, data showed on Wednesday. A sharp recovery in prices that began in Ireland five years ago showed ...

Britain's Balfour Beatty (Other OTC: BAFBF - news) reported a tripling of annual profit on Wednesday and said the construction industry was returning to health after the high-profile collapse of Carillion (Frankfurt: 924047 - news) this year. The demise of Carillion came after construction companies took on major contracts at thin margins, leaving them nursing losses in the event of delays or problems. "Companies are starting to recover from what effectively was very low pricing in 2013 and 2014," Balfour Beatty Chief Executive Leo Quinn told Reuters.

Full year underlying profits at Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) 's permanent tsb (PTSB) fell 65 percent year-on-year as the bank took a higher impairment charge ahead of a controversial sale of non-performing loans (NPLs). PTSB has come under particular pressure from European regulators to cut its high level of NPLs and said on Wednesday that they had fallen by 600 million euros to 5.3 billion, representing a slightly lower 26 percent of its total book. "I understand of course the view point of people who have either criticised us or have a different perspective," PTSB Chief Executive Jeremy Masding told the Newstalk radio station.

The British and Irish governments should redouble efforts next month to broker a deal that would restore a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) after a year of political stalemate, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Tuesday. The British region has been without a devolved executive - a central plank of its 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of violence - since Irish nationalists Sinn Fein pulled out in January last year, saying they were not being treated as equal partners by the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Acknowledging that the impact of Brexit negotiations on the future of the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland had complicated the political talks in Belfast, Varadkar called for a fresh round once EU leaders endorse a joint stance on their future relationship with Britain on March 23.

European Union finance ministers agreed new measures on Tuesday to force accountants and banks to report aggressive tax schemes that help companies shift profits to low-tax countries. Ministers also added the Bahamas, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Saint Kitts and Nevis to a blacklist of tax havens, while Bahrain, the Marshall Islands and Saint Lucia were delisted, confirming earlier Reuters reports.

The British government will consult on a new mechanism for collecting value-added-tax (VAT) for online sales to ensure that the tax paid by consumers reaches the Treasury, finance minister Philip Hammond said during his spring statement to parliament. Major digital companies such as Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB - news) and Google have previously paid little tax in Europe, typically by channelling sales via countries like Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) and Luxembourg, which have a light touch approach to taxation.

The European Union's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier hammered home again on Tuesday that Britain would not retain its current privileges, including on trade, once it leaves the bloc. The EU and Britain are hoping to seal a deal this month on a transition period after Brexit, and start talks on their future relationship this spring.

Tax advisers in the European Union will risk fines if they help companies cut tax bills by shifting profits to low-tax countries, under proposals that EU finance ministers are discussing on Tuesday. Under the draft law, proposed by the European Commission in June, tax advisers including the Big Four accounting firms, banks and lawyers, would be required to inform authorities about "potentially aggressive tax planning arrangements" set up for their clients. "We hope we are able to reach an agreement on rules on tax intermediaries and transparency of potentially aggressive tax schemes which will need to be reported," the commission's vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters as he arrived at the finance ministers' meeting.

Euro zone finance ministers failed to make a breakthrough on Monday on an EU-wide deposit guarantee scheme, even though the European Central Bank said risks for banks have already been reduced enoug. The ministers discussed deeper integration of their economies, focusing on a banking union and the transformation of the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund into a European Monetary Fund. One element still missing from an EU banking union is deposit insurance for the entire euro zone, which would bolster the confidence of savers and protect deposits of up to 100,000 euros in any euro zone bank.

Irish start-up VR Education Holdings (VRE) is listing in London and Dublin on Monday to fund the global roll-out of its virtual reality platform that provides experiences for students, teachers and corporate trainers. The company founded in Waterford, Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) , by husband and wife team David and Sandra Whelan just over three years ago, said it had secured more than 6 million pounds ($8.3 million) of funding from UK institutions, valuing the company at about 19.3 million pounds. David Whelan said VRE's capabilities had been showcased by its Apollo 11 experience, in which the user becomes astronaut Neil Armstrong and plants a flag on the Moon.

Tail risks for the Irish and global economies are rising even as robust growth continues, Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) 's central bank governor warned on Friday. Ireland's economy has grown faster than any other in the European Union for the last three years and is showing few signs of slowing down.

SIG Plc (Frankfurt: 888153 - news) on Friday posted a 4.3 percent rise in full-year pretax profit, helped by strong demand in Europe amid a restructuring turnaround in several of its businesses. SIG, which supplies insulation and roofing products, said underlying pretax profit rose to 79.2 million pounds ($109.3 million) in the year ended Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) . The firm has been trying to strengthen its balance sheet by selling assets and reviewing costs, as it battles to recover from weak trading in its UK insulation, interiors and offsite construction businesses.

Yum Brands Inc's KFC chain is returning to a former supplier for more than one-third of its UK restaurants after a switch to a new firm caused widespread chicken shortages that forced the temporary closure of hundreds of restaurants. KFC on Thursday said it would switch the distribution contract back to Bidvest Logistics, from DHL and partner QSL, for up to 350 restaurants in the north of the UK. It will continue to work with DHL and QSL for the remainder of its roughly 900 restaurants in the UK and Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) .